The Richmond Finance Committee has been tossing around the idea of increasing the pay of village trustees.

They currently receive $50 for each Village Board meeting and $25 for each committee meeting they attend, said Trustee Dennis Bardy, who serves as the Finance Committee chairman.

The idea is to also pay trustees $150 a month to cover the work they do outside of meetings, he said.

Trustee pay has not been adjusted since 1989, he said. Any changes would not go into effect until the next round of elections, which means whoever is elected in April 2015 would see the first increases.

The minimal compensation is one of the problems the village is having in attracting people to serve on the board, Bardy said.

"We've got people who are doing a lot of work," Bardy said. "We had one guy who put in 25 hours a week and got paid nothing. He was preparing for negotiations. I went to Springfield for two days, and I got paid nothing. We don't mind, but some people would."

Village President Pete Koenig said he's neutral on the issue but is leaning toward not increasing the pay because of the tight budget situation.

The proposal would cost an additional $10,800.

Koenig's pay as village president would not change under the proposal. He earns about $6,000 a year.

The pay for trustees would average $1,800, assuming they attend both of the two monthly board meetings and sit on one of committees that meet twice a month.

"Certainly, people would not have sought this office at the rate we're paying," Koenig said. "You don't want people doing this for the money, but you want to make it attractive enough that you attract good people to the job."